Megan Zara, M. Ed.
One of the most profound and eye-opening new understanding of authenticity in literacy that I have developed is the idea of Disciplinary Literacy. In my class focused on research, we devoted our semester to completing a research synthesis on a topic of interest.
My initial topic was Content Area Literacy/Reading. My reason for this choice was because I wanted to know why students still
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READ 5493 Research Synthesis Excerpt
struggled to read in the content areas and why teachers were reluctant to embody the old adage, “every teacher, a teacher of reading.” As I began my research into content area reading, I was advised to also look into disciplinary reading. The idea of disciplinary reading was new to me and I expected it to simply be another term for content area reading. I quickly learned that there is a big difference between these two ideas.
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Content area reading refers to the “tool box” of general reading strategies that can be used to aid in comprehension as students read across disciplines. Disciplinary reading, however, refers to the specific discourse used within a certain discipline. For example, the way in which a mathematician reads within his/her discipline is different and requires a different way of reading than a scientist or historian. A very important new understanding that my critical inquiry into this body of research lead me to, was the conclusion that this old, overused quote, ‘every teacher, a teacher of reading’ effectively robs other disciplines of their literate identities.
"When students are taught, explicitly, that reading within different disciplines looks and feels different, teachers are creating an authentic purpose and literate environment for students."
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Figure 4. READ 5493 Research Synthesis Excerpt
When we simply teach the general strategies for reading of Content Area Literacy, we communicate to our students that we read all texts in the exact same way. This presents the problem of the student who wants to be a scientist, but finds it difficult to understand a lab report. The student assumes they are simply “not a good reader,” and a great opportunity to develop the student’s science literacy has passed. Disciplinary reading is another way to provide authentic literacy experiences for students. When students are taught, explicitly, that reading within different disciplines looks and feels different, teachers are creating an authentic purpose and literate environment for students.
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